


Mistletoe

by fusionfandom



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Christmas, F/F, Fluff, Mistletoe, Mistletoe is a parasite, Ryan is the worst wingman, thasmin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 11:04:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17160848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fusionfandom/pseuds/fusionfandom
Summary: It’s Christmas time and Yaz, Graham and Ryan are glad to get to spend time with the Doctor, even if they have festivities to participate in back in Sheffield later on.With her good friend Ryan determined to be Yaz’s wingman, though, she’s starting to wish that she’d just spent the whole day with her family. Luckily for her, the Doctor can be really oblivious when it comes to picking up on hints.





	Mistletoe

“Y’know, some people call Christmas the day of love,” Ryan commented to Yaz as the two made their way over to the Tardis, wrapped up warm in thick, winter coats and carrying presents, crackers and mince pies.

“I’m pretty sure that’s Valentine’s Day,” Yaz responded, doing her best to ignore Ryan’s comments. Ever since Yaz had admitted to him about her crush on the Doctor, he had been insufferable about it. Still, she was glad to have a supportive friend, even if it wasn’t exactly the kind of support she’d asked for.

“And Sheffield’s sometimes known as the city of love,” Ryan continued, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

“Again, I’m fairly certain that’s Paris,” Yaz rolled her eyes.

“I’m just saying that I really think you should give it a shot today. Flirt with her a bit!” he encouraged. Yaz stopped walking and turned around to face him.

“Oh yeah, I’m sure that’s gonna go great. Have you ever seen me try to flirt?” she asked. Ryan shook his head.

“Good, because last time I tried to flirt with someone, I accidentally punched her,” Yaz said flatly, turning around on her heels and walking off again.

“I could be your wingman, then!” Ryan declared, running slightly to catch up with Yaz again. She didn’t respond.

“C’mon, Yaz, you can’t go pining after her forever,” he argued.

“Just watch me,” Yaz challenged, stopping just outside the blue police box door.

“Graham’s here now,” Ryan pointed out, nodding in the direction from which the older man was coming.

“Merry Christmas, Yaz,” Graham greeted.

“Merry Christmas,” Yaz smiled back.

“I’ve brought the Doc’s Christmas sweater. Think she’ll like it?” Graham asked, holding up a red, knitted jumper with Santa stuck in a chimney knitted onto the front.

“It’s hideous,” Yaz commented, smiling as she realised that the Doctor would definitely love it.

“Exactly,” Graham laughed before stepping forward and pushing open the door to the Tardis.

“Merry Christmas, Doctor!” the three chorused as they entered the Tardis. Yaz glanced around the console room, surprised to see tinsel encircling the crystals and paper snowflakes dangling from the roof.

“Merry Christmas, fam!” the Doctor greeted, “I hope you’re all ready for presents. I love presents. Haven’t given anyone a present in a while, mind you, so I hope they’re alright.

Yaz laughed at the Doctor’s excessive talking. She only ever did that when she was nervous and it was adorable.

“I’m sure we’ll love them, Doctor,” she promised. The Doctor glanced over at Yaz and grinned, causing a blush to rise in Yaz’s cheeks as she grinned back.

The Doctor ran around to the other side of the console as Yaz glanced over at Ryan whose eyebrows were raised pointedly.

“Shut up,” she muttered to him.

“I haven’t said anyhting,” Ryan protested, still grinning. Yaz rolled her eyes. He really wasn’t going to let this wingman thing go.

“Hey, Doc, I brought you a Christmas jumper to wear. Me, Yaz and Ryan already have ours on so we didn’t want you to feel left out,” Graham announced, holding the red jumper out in front of him. 

The blonde alien peeked her head out from around the side of the console.

“I love it!” she declared happily, marching over to Graham and taking it from him. She let her long coat slide down her arms and Yaz tried hard not to stare. The Doctor was only taking a coat off, for goodness sake!

The Doctor attempted to pull the jumper over her head in one swift movement, still forgetting that she had goggles on the top of her head and proceeding to get it stuck.

“A little help please?” a muffled voice came from inside the jumper. Yaz suppressed a laugh at the adorable scene unfolding in front of her.

“Yaz can help,” Ryan volunteered readily. Yaz, who had already been on her way over to help the Doctor, glared at him. She was not going to survive today if Ryan kept at it.

“Oh, good!” The Doctor’s voice came from inside the jumper. Yaz tugged it over her goggles, removing them as she did, and pulled it onto the Doctor’s body properly.

“You can save the universe but a Christmas jumper defeats you,” Yaz grinned at her.

“Hey, no bullying on Christmas! Unless we’re bullying Graham,” the Doctor instructed.

“Oi!” Graham protested as Yaz, Ryan and the Doctor burst into laughter.

“So, do I get to see your jumpers or are you planning on keeping your coats on?” the Doctor asked once they’d finally all sat themselves down in the Tardis.

Yaz froze. She’d been that distracted by the Doctor on her way to the Tardis that she’d forgotten about the jumper Ryan had forced her to wear as another ‘hint’ for the Doctor.

“Mine’s awesome,” Ryan announced, revealing his jumper of Rudolph wearing sunglasses that said ‘Rude olph’. Yaz wasn’t quite sure why Ryan liked it but she supposed it was still better than hers.

“Ryan got me this but I actually quite like Christmas,” Graham explained, revealing his ‘Bah, Humbug’ jumper.

“Still pretty fitting for the rest of the time, though,” Yaz teased.

“What about you, Yaz?” the Doctor asked. Yaz breathed in deeply and exhaled. As long as she didn’t go red in the face, this would be fine. She could be cool about this and joke about it as the jumper was intended.

Yaz finally unzipped her coat and revealed her jumper that read ‘Jingle my Bells’ with two bells placed over her boobs to the Doctor.

In response, the Doctor just laughed, clutching the side of the Tardis as she did so. Yaz felt her face heat up in embarrassment and tried to hide in the fur lining of her coat.

“Oh, Yaz, I love it,” the Doctor chuckled.

“It was Ryan’s idea, not mind,” Yaz felt like she should point out, shooting a pointed look at Ryan who looked as though he was finding Yaz’s discomfort way more amusing than she was.

“Ryan, you are officially always in charge of Christmas jumpers,” the Doctor decided.

Yaz paused. Did this mean the Doctor wanted to do this again next year? Yaz could feel excitement bubbling up inside her. That meant she got to spend another full year with the Doctor, going on all these extraordinary adventures and spending time with her.

“Thanks, Doctor,” Ryan grinned, interrupting Yaz’s thoughts “Next year, Yaz’s is gonna say ‘Do my baubles look big in this?’”

“Ryan!” Yaz protested as the Doctor burst out laughing again, this time draping her arm over Yaz’s shoulder. 

At least the Doctor didn’t seem to notice Ryan’s ulterior motive with the jumpers which was a huge relief to Yaz. Whilst the alien may have been the most intelligent being in the universe, she was also very oblivious. Especially when it came to Yaz’s feelings. 

Yaz, for one, considered this a blessing.

“How about we exchange those presents now?” Graham suggested, causing Yaz to breathe a sigh of relief that the conversation was shifting away from crude jokes on her Christmas jumpers.

Yaz walked over to the pile of presents she had left on the stairs as she entered the Tardis and picked the three bags up, handing one to Graham, one to Ryan and one to the Doctor. She’d never been the best at gift giving but she hoped she knew these three well enough by now to get them something they’d like.

“As you know, the Christmas jumpers were a gift from me, chosen by Ryan,” Graham announced, “but I got you all a little something else, too.”

He handed a box to each of them and Yaz opened it, glad to find chocolates inside. Despite most people receiving endless piles of chocolate at Christmas, she rarely did and was happy to get some for once.

“Thanks, Graham!” Yaz grinned just as Ryan handed her another parcel. She refrained from commenting on the atrocious wrapping.

“Aw, Yaz. these are awesome!” Ryan gasped, holding up the headphones Yaz had bought for him.

“Think about that next time you try and tease me,” she warned humorously.

“Graham, why have you got me this?” the Doctor asked, squinting at the Cooking Book Graham had gifted her with that she was holding above her head.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about the time you told Yaz you could bake cookies in the Tardis and the two of you almost burnt this thing down,” Graham pointed out.

“It wasn’t that bad,” Yaz blushed, thinking back to how cute the Doctor had looked with flour smudged on the end of her nose.

“Don’t call the Tardis a ‘thing’, Graham! How many times do I have to tell you to treat her with respect?” the Doctor accused, “Ooo, Yaz, thank you for the biscuits! I love biscuits.”

“There’s something else in there, too,” Yaz smiled slightly sheepishly, hoping the Doctor would like it, as she opened her present from Ryan.

The book inside fell out onto her lap and upon reading the title, she looked over at Ryan and stared at him.

“Seriously?” she sighed.

“From what you were telling me earlier, you definitely need the help,” Ryan smirked. Yaz glanced down at Ryan’s present. Flirting 101.

“What is it?” the Doctor asked, as inquisitive as always.

“Oh, just an inside joke,” Yaz lied, hiding the book back in the paper it had been ripped out of.

“Aha, Yaz, I love it! Thank you,” Graham said, opening the ‘When in doubt, ask a bus driver’ mug and football scarf Yaz had given to him, “As for you, Doc, Astrophysics? Really?”

Yaz laughed as she saw that the Doctor had indeed given Graham a book on astrophysics.

“Well, you’re always asking questions and never understanding the answer, so you might as well get learning something useful!” she explained, causing Yaz to laugh.

“And what about the avocados?” Ryan chipped in, holding up an avocado to match the one that was in Graham’s hand.

“Don’t you remember? That guy, Yoss, named his child after you two. Avocado pear!” the Doctor grinned.

“Why am I already dreading opening mine?” Yaz laughed, her present from the Doctor being the only unopened one.

“Oh, she’s not so bad at getting gifts after all. She’s got me a music voucher,” Ryan grinned.

“You are always listening to music,” Graham pointed out, “It’s an easy present to get you.”

Ryan shrugged, plugging his new headphones into his phone and thus proving Graham’s point.

“Ryan, I love these stripy socks! I’m gonna make sure none of them match. And Yaz, this necklace is really cool, thank you,” the Doctor grinned, holding the planet necklace Yaz had bought her to her neck.

“Thought it might be a nice addition to your outfit,” Yaz shrugged. smiling fondly at the Doctor as she always did by reflex. She watched the Doctor attempt to hook the necklace at the back of her neck and her smile turned into a laugh.

“Do you want me to help you?” she asked.

“Please,” the Doctor asked apologetically. 

Yaz walked up behind her and hooked the necklace together, accidentally grazing her fingers over the back of the Doctor’s neck. It might have just been her imagination but she could have sworn that she felt the Doctor shiver under her touch.

“Now, Yaz hurry up and open your last present because I have one more for the three of you,” the Doctor grinned. Yaz nodded and picked up her last present, pulling off the paper of the first to reveal a set of pyjamas scattered with stars.

“They’re really cute! Thanks, Doctor,” she grinned before opening the next. Inside a blue box lay a silver bracelet with a heart charm attached. Yaz bit her lip to prevent her smile from growing any wider as Ryan leant over her shoulder.

“A heart, huh?” Ryan raised his eyebrow.

“It reminded me of you,” the Doctor said, smiling at Yaz as she crouched down next to her and Ryan, holding the mysterious other presents in her hand.

“I’m sure Yaz will definitely be reminded of you when she wears it too,” Ryan smirked as Yaz elbowed him gently to shut him up, looking up to catch the Doctor’s eyes.

“Thank you,” she said softly. The Doctor just smiled in response.

“Now, your final present!” the Doctor declared, pulling out three identically wrapped parcels from behind her back. She accurately tossed each one into Yaz, Ryan and Graham’s chests. 

Due to his dyspraxia, Ryan didn’t manage to catch his and it fell onto the floor. Yaz wanted to laugh at him because of his constant teasing of her so far that day but decided against it, instead focusing on opening the Doctor’s gift- a challenging task due to her obvious love of overusing cellotape. 

To her surprise, the package that fell out was a royal blue t-shirt that when turned around to the front read ‘Team TARDIS’.

Yaz couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

“Doctor, these are perfect,” she grinned, noticing that Ryan, Graham and even the Doctor herself had matching ones.

“You’d better wear them, too. I payed good money for them,” the Doctor commented. Yaz raised an eyebrow.

“How exactly do you get money?” she asked quizzically.

“I’m a time traveller,” came the Doctor’s answer, not actually answering Yaz’s question at all. Yaz looked at her pointedly and received a wink in return. 

She got the feeling the Doctor had somehow not spent proper money on them at all, but since the t-shirt was a gift, from the Doctor, Yaz supposed she could accept it without conferring with her police-trained moral compass.

“Hey, Ryan, can I replace your terrible jumper with the t-shirt?” Yaz asked, hoping to finally be relieved of the embarrassment the jumper brought her.

“Ok, picking favourite presents now, are we? Shouldn’t be surprised that the Doctor wins for you, should I?” Ryan teased.

“Shut up,” Yaz muttered, pulling her jumper off anyway and pulling her new t-shirt over the tank top she had on underneath.

“Ha- Yaz likes my gift best,” the Doctor grinned. Yaz released a breath she hadn’t even noticed she’d been holding at the Doctor’s consistent obliviousness. 

How the alien woman didn’t notice Yaz’s feelings due to Ryan’s comments was beyond her. For someone so smart, she really could be dumb.

“I’m hungry. Can we eat now?” Graham asked, always the first to think about food.

“Excellent idea! I’m starving,” the Doctor agreed, jumping up and running around to the other side of the Tardis, “did you know you can cook a turkey in this thing? I helped make Christmas dinner for Clara that one year I had to be her boyfriend.”

Yaz stared at the Doctor with a mix of bewilderment and adoration as she rambled, once again astonished by how many life experiences and people the Doctor had met before Yaz. 

Whilst the Doctor often made her feel like the most important person in the universe, it was times like these when she casually name dropped some of the other people she’d travelled with that Yaz realised she really was just another name on a long list.

If that fact saddened Yaz, though, she couldn’t imagine how hard it must be for the Doctor to live so many years, travel with so many humans and have to watch them die or leave, never to be seen again. 

It was selfish for her to just think about how she wanted to be the only one in the Doctor’s list that the alien loved. For all Yaz knew, the Doctor didn’t even love her or at least nowhere near as much as Yaz loved her.

“Oi, Yaz, what’s got you looking spaced out?” Ryan said quietly. Yaz jumped at the sound of his voice, realising she’d been so preoccupied by her thoughts that she hadn’t noticed Ryan approaching her.

“Nothing much. Just stupid thoughts,” Yaz shrugged.

“Well, I thought it might interest you to know that I hung up some mistletoe around the Tardis. Reckon you and the Doctor should go on a walk?” he suggested. 

Yaz raised an eyebrow at the idea and allowed herself to smile. Despite everything she’d just been thinking, she couldn’t help but want. Want to ‘accidentally’ find herself under the mistletoe with the Doctor. Want to shrug and pretend that she couldn’t ignore Christmas rules. Want to feel the Doctor’s lips on hers.

“Alright, I give in,” Yaz rolled her eyes, “what can my excuse be?”

“Don’t worry, I already thought it out,” Ryan winked, “I put some crackers in your room before we left. Ask her to go and get them with you.”

“How long have you been planning this?” Yaz asked in surprise, turning around to gape at him.

“Way too long,” he admitted, looking into the distance dramatically. Yaz elbowed him playfully.

“You’re simultaneously the worst and the best. I’ll go ask her.”

Ryan flashed her a thumbs up as she walked over to where the Doctor was squatting by a panel in the Tardis wall behind which the turkey sat.

“How long till the turkey’s done?” Yaz asked.

“Time is a social construct,” the Doctor responded mystically before standing up and grinning, “just kidding, it’ll be about twenty minutes.”

“Well, instead of squatting there and waiting for it, fancy taking a wander with me? I have some Christmas crackers in my room I wanted to get. Reckon twenty minutes is long enough to get them?” Yaz offered, surprised that she’d actually managed to say it all without getting cold feet or stuttering as she spoke.

“Oh, definitely! An adventure with Yaz? Sounds great,” the Doctor grinned, already walking off towards the exit of the console room. 

Yaz giggled at her eagerness and turned around to grin at Ryan before following the Doctor down the steps and out of the room.

“I love Christmas, don’t you?” the Doctor asked, “y’know there’s a town called Christmas. I spent a long time there once.”

“Is it nice?” Yaz asked. The Doctor paused in her tracks, causing Yaz to bump into her slightly before stopping herself. 

She turned around to face Yaz with a faraway look in her eye that only seemed to appear when the Doctor was thinking or talking about a part of her past that looked as if it brought back painful memories. Yaz could never tell if the memories were painful because they’d been sad or painful because they’d been happy and she missed them.

“Yeah, I suppose,” the Doctor shrugged, realising she’d gone quiet for a bit. She turned around and was about to start walking again when Yaz suddenly noticed what was hanging directly above them and grabbed the Doctor’s shoulder. She wasn’t about to pass up this opportunity.

“There’s mistletoe,” Yaz breathed, “above us.”

“Who brought mistletoe onto the Tardis?” the Doctor asked, scrunching her face up.

“It’s… a Christmas tradition,” Yaz explained, hoping Ryan had been right about this. The Doctor didn’t look particularly happy.

“Mistletoe’s a parasite. Messes with your ribosomes, denatures them and prevents mRNA from attaching. It also prevents peptidyl transferase from forming sufficient peptide bonds. Terrible for protein biosynthesis, did you know, Yaz? Never eat it-“

Even if the Doctor had planned on continuing her biological spiel, she wouldn’t have been able to because Yaz had finally gathered the courage to grab the Doctor by her yellow suspenders and kiss her, fluttering her eyelashes closed and dragging the kiss out as long as she could, just in case she never got the courage or opportunity to ever do it again.

“So that’s what you meant by Christmas tradition,” the Doctor suddenly realised.

“Maybe I should do some scientific research before I plan anything like that again,” Yaz laughed nervously, realising she had accidentally just revealed that the mistletoe was planned. By her. And Ryan, too, but the Doctor didn’t know that.

“There are about a million other ways you could have asked to kiss me, most of which would have been safer than mistletoe,” the Doctor informed her.

“You would have said yes if I’d just asked?” Yaz spluttered.

“Of course!” the Doctor declared.

“Then… can I?” Yaz asked but the Doctor was one step ahead of her, taking a step forwards, wrapping an arm around her waist before dipping her slightly and kissing her fiercely, completely taking Yaz’s breath away.

Yaz reached her arms up and wrapped them around the Doctor’s neck, pulling the other woman closer to her body. She pulled her body back up straight so that she could slide her fingers into the Doctor’s hair and kiss her back.

The Doctor pushed into the kiss further, sliding her tongue into Yaz’s mouth as her thumb slid underneath the hem of Yaz’s Christmas jumper, brushing against the smooth skin there and sending a shiver down Yaz’s body.

“I love it when you talk all science-y” Yaz admitted.

“Why did you stop me, then?” the Doctor asked.

“Couldn’t resist doing this,” Yaz explained, kissing the Doctor again.

“Y’know there’s other places you could have kissed me if you wanted to enjoy both things at once,” the Doctor suggested.

“Doctor!” Yaz protested, pulling away slightly and blushing heavily at the implications the Doctor had made. The blonde alien merely laughed instead, draping her arm across Yaz’s shoulders and kissing her cheek.

“We should get the crackers and get back to Graham and Ryan before they start trying to search for us,” Yaz suggested, worried that Ryan was going to come and investigate what was taking so long and find the two of them making out in the corridor.

“Mm, we should,” the Doctor commented, wrapping both arms around Yaz’s waist again, distractedly kissing her. 

Yaz wasn’t complaining at all, especially when she had been so desperate for this for so long, but despite how good the Doctor’s lips felt against hers, she really was worried that Ryan was going to have blackmail material on her for years if they didn’t leave soon.

“C’mon, let’s go to my bedroom,” Yaz finally pulled away to say.

“If I didn’t know the context, that would be the perfect sentence,” the Doctor teased.

“Honestly, your mind is in the gutter,” Yaz complained, taking the Doctor’s hand and pulling her along the corridors of the Tardis, down the route to her room she had familiarised herself with after the months she’d spent on board.

“You can blame River Song for that,” the Doctor said, casually name dropping once again. Yaz paused and turned around to face her. Something in particular was bothering the Doctor today. She was mentioning the past way more frequently than usual and it was concerning Yaz.

“Doctor,” Yaz said to grab her attention, “Are you alright today? I know you’ve been acting cheery because it’s Christmas but you’ve also brought up the past way more than usual. What’s going on?”

The Doctor looked at Yaz for a moment, her eyes filling with a pained look before she slipped her hand into Yaz’s and pulled her into her own room which they had just reached.

“Doctor?” Yaz repeated as the blonde alien shut the door behind the two of them and dropped Yaz’s hand, beginning to pace the floor.

“I didn’t mean to make it so obvious. I’m sorry you realised. This was supposed to just be a fun day and I ruined it. Yaz, I don’t want you to think I’m hung up on the past or anything, but-“ The Doctor paused for a moment, turning back around to face Yaz and reaching out to take her hand again.

“But?” Yaz repeated the Doctor, pressing for more information.

“But at Christmas I often get reminded of adventures I’ve had. I never have a quiet Christmas. I always get to spend it with someone. Every time Christmas comes around, though, I’m reminded that I lost them. That I always loose everyone I care about. It reminds me that I’m going to loose you far sooner than I want to. And Graham and Ryan,” the Doctor rambled. 

Yaz looked at the Doctor in surprise, wishing she could relate to the situation at all to try and help. Using the hand that was occupied by the Doctor’s, she led the other woman to her bed and sat them down.

“Whilst I might not be able to understand how you feel, I do get that it’s kind of painful to try and enjoy Christmas with us if all you can think about is that we’re going to die in your life span and that it almost feels disrespectful to your old friends and companions to enjoy Christmas with other people now that they’re gone. It really does sound for too complicated for me to wrap my head around,” Yaz admitted, realising nothing she had said as of yet was remotely helpful.

“However,” she added, “Even if it is painful to remember, I can guarantee that every Christmas you spent with another person was the best Christmas of their life because I know this is the best of mine just because I’ve been able to spend it with you. You have a big impact on everyone’s happiness and even if I wish you could feel that happiness for yourself, I don’t think you understand just how much that happiness will stay with them forever, just as the memories make you happy if sad at the same time.”

Yaz paused for breath, glancing back at the Doctor whose eyes seemed to be welling up with tears.

“And, as for me,” Yaz continued, “I promise to stay with you for as many Christmases as you want me around for for as long as I’m alive.

“Oh, Yaz,” the Doctor sighed before reaching up to cup her face and kissing her again, her lips tasting salty due to the slow trail of tears she’d shed sliding down her face. Yaz reached her hand up to wipe underneath the Doctor’s eyes, taking away her tears and kissing her back. She didn’t want the Doctor to feel sad at the memory of her friends: she wanted her to feel happy that the memories existed and happy that she could make more.

“Ready to go back to Ryan and Graham with the crackers now?” Yaz asked after they parted, nodding in the direction of the crackers she had noted were indeed sat on her bed as Ryan had promised.

“Sorry if I ended up making this a lousy Christmas by being miserable,” the Doctor apologised.

“Hey, I’ve already told you- this is the best Christmas of my life. I get to spend it with you,” Yaz promised with a smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you all had a great Christmas!


End file.
